You'd better win
by frustrated math teacher
Summary: Cato's life. From birth to death. Explains why he is.
1. Chapter 1

They say there is only one thing more painful than a morphling addict giving birth and that is the withdrawals weak newborns must endure. It is more painful for the baby for the simple reason that the mother invariably dies. In the rare case that the mother still has enough sense to realise they want to carry the child in their drug ravaged body , the birth is just too much for their already weakened systems to endure. Truth be known, there has only been 18 cases where a morphling mother has given birth, every mother has died and only 3 of the children have had the strength to last the months it takes to get the drug out of their system. Here in district two, granted one of the wealthiest districts, there still isn't the medication to aid the child available. So they simply suffer in excruciating pain. The lucky ones may have a sympathetic adult who attempts to get them through but most people don't want a dying child to deal with.

He was born in the worst circumstances imaginable. His morphling mother died moments after the birth and the nurses simply took him to the nursery placing him in a spare crib. He lasted about an hour before his body started screaming for that alien substance. The little wail from his throat quickly became a series of jagged, sharp, involuntary movements that normal babies shouldn't be capable of. The other mothers watched in horror as blood started to drip from his nose, eyes and mouth. His screaming became desperate, quickly invading the entire room. Mothers grabbed their children and left the room hysterically. He continued to scream before mercifully the pain simply knocked him out.

"What are we going to do with him?"

"No one wants an orphaned child."

"We can't just leave him…that is cruel."

"But necessary, it's hard enough feeding ourselves. He is morph addicted. He needs full time care for months to have even a slight chance"

"I will take him. I couldn't leave a child to starve to death."

"It will cost you more than you imagine. Think about it! You wouldn't be able to work, how would you feed yourself?"

Anne, a young mid wife stood with the comatose baby in her arms. He still twitched involuntarily, letting out small gasps of pain. His poor body was tiny with blotches all over his back. Classical symptons of the drug users. He didn't choose this. She had supportive parents and friends. As far as Anne was concerned the little boy was hers as of now.

"I'm taking him. Everyone deserves a chance"

The doctor dropped his head. He had known for quite a while that Anne was stubborn and possessed of too much care for others. She had been one of the better nurses at the hospital and she would be sorely missed. "What will you name him?" he asked resignedly.

Anne thought for a while. She looked down at the jerky baby. "Cato"


	2. Chapter 2

Cato stopped just before the corner. He pressed his back up against the hard wall and listened intently. "Come on Cato, lets just go!" Cato smiled. Coroneous was always act first, think later. Here they were just outside the markets. Two little eight year old boys, inseparable since they could walk. Growing up had been particularly hard on Cato. His mother didn't even know if he would live in his first two months. There had been times when his body had just given up, the withdrawals too intense. His mother had performed life saving mouth to mouth on several occasions during that time. Then the effects had slowly worn off over the next two years, it had not affected his mental status and now he stood with his best friend. The only noticeable difference from them was that Cato was a lot smaller than boys his own age but even that was starting to change.

"Coroneous, just wait a second. The peacekeeper has a set routine. He will start his meal, eating half of it before wandering off to do his business. We will do it then! We can't go now you dimwit. He is still sitting there"

Coroneous, not the sharpest tool in the shed, simply nodded with agreement. Cato was the brains behind this team of two deviants. The plan was great. Slip shredded Primrose into his meal. Tasteless but not harmful, shredded Primrose has the delightful side effect of giving the user explosive diarrhoea for days. It was used for bad cases of constipation. This peacekeeper was one of the more vigilant peacekeepers. He made life very difficult for the inhabitants of the slums. Curfews that couldn't be met, whippings for the most menial indiscretions. Recently he had whipped Cato's mother for not having his clothes dry on time, even though it had been raining for days. Cato smiled as he imagined the look of pain on the peacekeepers face as his stomach churned. The whipping had been bad on Cato, his mother was the most caring person he had ever known. She had gone without to feed Cato many times and the agony she had endured had cut Cato to the bone. As she wailed in pain, Cato hid in his tiny room crying his eyes out. This peacekeeper was going to pay.

Cato peered from behind the corner. Sure enough, the peacekeeper, Elondo, had stayed true to form. His half finished meal lay there innocently while he was relieving himself on some unfortunate families laundry. Cato quickly darted over to the meal, whipped out the Primrose and spread the contents over the meal. It was so fine you couldn't even tell it was there. He lithely walked back to his spot where Coroneous waited with a huge grin on his face. "Now for the fun to begin"

The two boys agilely scaled the nearby walls to the rooftops of the slum houses. They peered over the top of the rails to see him finish his meal. He let out a huge belch quickly followed by a huge bout of wind. Laughing he tossed the remains of his meal at the locals before standing and beginning preparations for his rounds, which usually involved stealing, intimidating and beating the people of the area. He took several steps before suddenly stopping. Cato and Coroneous watched with anticipation. Elondo winced in pain and grabbed his stomach. Cato could hear his stomach churning even from the rooftops. He ran for the nearest convenient, discreet place but only managed three steps before his bowels exploded. The wet patch was evident as was the hot faeces that ran down his leg in a torrent. He fell to the ground screaming as wave after wave of diarrhoea hit him. The stench was unbearable, people quickly moved back a safe distance. They tried not to laugh, several had seen Cato put the herb into his meal. Elondo, in sheer embarrassment tried to get to his feet to mercifully escape the humiliation but was overcome by another huge bout and fell into his own waste as it started exploding again. The two boys laughed hysterically. It had worked better than they had hoped. Several peacekeepers arrived on the hapless peacekeeper, they stared with absolute shock. Then several of them tried to stifle laughs themselves. He was not liked at all, this was truly hilarious. They grabbed the still wincing Elondo and hurled him to his feet. One of them slipped in his waste and landed directly into it with his face . This was too much for the locals and they burst out laughing. The whites of the peacekeepers were now putrid and two big peacekeepers grabbed him under the armpits and took off on the run back to base. Flatulence could be heard coming from Elondo all the way down the street until the peacekeepers turned the corner and headed home. One of them turned and saw two little boys on a rooftop high fiving and laughing. He narrowed his eyes and realised who he was looking at. On the rooftop, Cato and Coroneous had no thoughts at all about the future – this was the highlight of their tough lives.


	3. Chapter 3

Arriving home Cato was in a state of excitement. He couldn't wait to tell his mum the news. He sprinted through the door letting out a high pitched yelp as he avoided the family dog. "Mum, I got him – I got the peacekeeper"

"What are you talking about Cato? What do you mean?" Anne replied in a cautious tone. Upon hearing what the boys had done Anne stood mute. "Cato, tell me your joking. Please tell me your joking!" Alarm was evident in her voice.

"Mum, what's the problem? He deserved it. He hurt you terribly" Cato had small tears in his eyes.

"The problem is Cato' Anne was angry now 'is that we are a district. You have seen enough of the Hunger games to realise that our district is different. Young boys and girls volunteer to be trained as tributes and then enter the games. However, many young boys and girls are sent to the centres as punishment. You have no idea what you could have done" Anne sat and wept bitter tears. "Pray that they don' find out what you did for both of our sakes". On cue the door smashed open and several peacekeepers burst through the door. Anne grabbed Cato , moved to the corner and attempted to shield him.

"Evening madam, I am Tinus. We will be taking your son to the centre for tribute training. You will also be escorting us to the centre. When your boy is either killed or made a tribute you will be allowed to leave. Until then you are a property of the capitol and will work in the centre." Tinus spoke in a malicious manner. Cold and calculated. "We don't take well to personal attacks on our peacekeepers. Kind of, you know, upsets the natural order."

"Please, he's just a boy, he doesn't know any better. He was just being …a boy" the pleading note in Anne's voice was evident.

"Sorry, rules must be followed. Grab the boy"

Two bog peacekeepers thrust Anne aside violently and grabbed Cato. He struggled with them managing to kick their shins. The biggest was quick to size up the situation and clubbed Cato. The last memory he had was hitting the ground with a loud thud.


	4. Chapter 4

Every year 30 boys and 30 girls are admitted into the centre for tribute excellence at the age of 8. Some of them are volunteered by their parents but most are simply placed into the centre by force of the peacekeepers. Generally they are the poor or homeless. In Cato's case it was punishment for the crime of making a peacekeeper sick. To make sure that the punished children didn't rebel and not participate their parents were forced to also work at the centre. The children would have to conform or they were forced to watch their parents tortured or in the worst cases, killed. Cato stood with all of this year's inductees including Coroneous, he hadn't escaped punishment either.

A middle aged lady walked out and addressed them. "I am Marceli, winner of the thirty eighth version of the hunger games. Welcome to the centre. Two of you will be going into the seventy fourth hunger games. The others of you will be dead". A stunned silence was evident through the room. Several of the kids started to cry. Peacekeepers quickly moved amongst them whacking the crying individuals with a heavy stick to the ground. They were kicked until they got the message to stop crying. Cato stood shocked. On the balcony, Anne stood with her hands over her mouth. Marceli continued. "Between now and the age of twelve, eighteen of the boys and girls will be gone. Then every year two will be removed before only two boys and girls remain. The week before the reaping shall see the last sets of boys and girls fight to the death for the honour of representing district two in the games. We have a distinguished history at the games and we will continue that for many years to come. If you want to bring glory to your family and yourself then fight to get there. Otherwise, simply die. There is no withdrawing, no quitting. The only way out of here is either in a body bag or into the arena. As the capital says, 'May the odds be in your favour'. To show you we are not kidding, our first elimination round shall be today. You are going to be placed into a lake. Very deep I here. Boys first and then the girls. You will not get out of the water until two of you are dead. Either you can wait until someone drowns or you can speed up the process by forcing someone else to drown. If you can't swim that might be a good idea.' Several kids started screaming and were again quieted with a series of beatings. ' So let's get this show on the road." The kids were forced outside and then into two trucks before being driven to Lake Nebo were a grandstand had been established. Always helpful for the parents to be able to watch their prodigies.

Cato treaded water fairly comfortably. He and Coroneous were capable swimmers. Fear was evident in everyone. Several kids were already panicking and the game hadn't even started. The hooter finally went. Cato and Coroneous quickly swam to each other. "Don't let anyone get too close. We'll be fine if we just stay away." Cato whispered desperately. One boy tried to approach them but a quick jab to the nose from Coroneous made sure that he drifted away quickly. It didn't last long, one boy was pretty much already under before the hooter went, his horrible cries were welcome by the other boys as they would survive. Cato tried to mentally ignore the pleas for help but it was hopeless. A tear escaped his eye but he quickly whisked it away. No signs of weakness could be displayed ever again. Another boy was drowned by a bigger boy who was trying to keep himself afloat by using another person. It was all over in 2 minutes. The flotation belts they were issued at the start were activated as soon as the second boy drowned and they were all quickly picked up by the boys boat. They watched as the girls, most crying were then placed into the lake. Likewise it was all over in minutes and then everyone was heading back to the centre. Cato and Coroneous sat shivering in silence. "Cato, if one of us is to die for the sake of this horrible district then the survivor must go the games, win them and then come back here and kill every single person involved in this place." Coroneous whispered to Cato with a dead look on his face. He had changed in the last hour. The happy boy he was, was already being replaced by a hardened, ruthless young man.

"My thoughts exactly" echoed Cato darkly.


	5. Chapter 5

The years passed by in a blur for Cato. Get up early, swimming followed by gym work, then breakfast before 5 hours of combat training. This often included hand to hand, hand held weapons, projectiles and wrestling. Cato didn't really excel in any of them, he was simply consistent across the board. A half hour break which invariably was stretching or massage followed by another 5 hour session of combat training. Most nights Cato would go to bed absolutely shattered. The numbers had dwindled consistently – there were only eighteen boys and eighteen girls left now. Cato was eleven and had seen things that people would never want to. Ever. To cull the numbers down meant people had to die. These ranged from being hunted and killed in the simulated arena by eighteen year olds on the verge of volunteering to the more cruel elements. Cato would often wake in a sweat from the worst of the experiences.

Once he was placed in a room with the remaining 20 boys and the door was closed and locked. The rules were simple – the door simply wouldn't open until two boys were dead. By this stage, the boys had become desensitised to killing and it really hadn't taken long again. By that stage Cato and Coroneous were still friends but very different people. While Cato still had his humanity, he wouldn't be involved in the killing of the two least favourite boys, Coroneous with his size had simply grabbed the unfortunate and had broken his neck. The other boy was strangled by another behemoth of a boy who never had any qualms with the killing part.

Cato's mother still watched him most days, training and getting bigger and more menacing. She mostly cried at night over what was happening to her boy. She saw him changing, the light was slowly leaving his eyes and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Life for her was simply working at the centre and dreading the elimination days. She was always thankful that Cato survived and hadn't as of yet done anything to harm his own soul but the anguish of watching other mothers as their children were killed in front of them was horrible. Memories were already seared into her conscience, watching a mother's mind just disintegrate as her son or daughter's life was taken away, others cheering when their protégé made themselves stand out with a vicious kill. It was all just disgusting but there was nothing to do about it. This was district 2, everyone knew the centre was funded by the capital. Better ratings if a couple of kids could fight it would seem.

Cato sat at the breakfast table. He rarely spoke these days. He still had his friend Coroneous but he was on the outer. He wasn't part of that clique group he enjoyed the experience. He hated the death and violence. The only thing that kept him alive was his obvious skill and his friendship with the probable victor Coroneous. Marceli walked into the room. Cato cringed, he hated her. He would love nothing better than his first kill to be that woman. Always smiling, never caring that kids were being killed right in front of her. "Good morning all of you we have a special treat today.' That meant someone was going to die. Cato's stomach churned already while others smiled in anticipation. ' As you all know, the year is ending and most of you are twelve already. That means you are about to enter stage two of the selection process. Congratulations. However, we did say that only 12 will be going to the second stage. Currently there are eighteen of you.' Astonished whispers spread. 6 were going to die today. Cato cringed further. ' We have been observing your training for three years now. Eleven of you are going straight into the centre. The remaining seven will fight for the last place. A simulated smaller version of the Hunger games will take place today. First the boys and then the girls as usual. As I call your names could you come forward." Cato listened intently. The names called out were all the best. Coroneous, Alexand, Mercuto…..it went on. Before Cato realised it, eleven boys were out the front smiling. Coroneous was the only one who looked slightly concerned and everyone knew him and Cato were good friends. Cato did the math. He was in for a bad day.


End file.
